Who Is Zemfira, and Why Is Her Name All Over Vetements’s Newest Hoodie?

Last season at Gosha Rubchinskiy’s Fall 2016 fashion show, Demna Gvasalia of Vetements was spotted wearing scuffed-up Converse shoes scrawled with the name of Russian singer Zemfira in Cyrillic alongside other bored-in-class-style doodles. Call it a clue, because today, exclusively at the Moscow concept store, SV Moscow, Vetements is releasing hoodies dedicated to none other than Zemfira herself.

For those who are unfamiliar with her octave-climbing angst and longing melodies, Zemfira has been a Russian music icon since the late 1990s. Since her entry into the Russian music scene—a musical culture that’s most often associated with saccharine pop acts—Zemfira has become a cult act writ large, and one of the most revered rock icons in Russia. (She has also been in some hot water recently, after expressing her support for Ukraine at a Tbilisi concert.) Though Gvasalia hadn’t met her in person until recently—thanks to an introduction by mutual friend actress and director Renata Litvinova)—Zemfira held untold influence over the designer (and the rest of his generation) growing up. “I listened to Zemfira from her very first album when I was 16, so her music represents for me sort of my adolescence,” writes Gvasalia. “Zemfira influenced not the way I dressed, but the way I saw poetry in everything, she influenced the sentiment.” And clearly the feeling is mutual: Since their introduction, Zemfira has been making cameos on her Instagram wearing Vetements.

As for Gvasalia’s Zemfira-dedicated hoodies, they have all the hits of Vetements’s original sell-out Titanic take—the sleeves artfully flop, the body has just the right amount of oversize slouch. The plush pieces are printed with Zemfira in Cyrillic on the back and in tiny English text on the front, along with the signature “Vetements” logo on the brim of the hood. There are only 50 hoodies available, for $770, not including shipping if you’re ordering beyond Russia. Which is not exactly how the singer grew up dressing. “We had no money. My mom couldn’t afford to buy herself boots for eight years. What style can we talk about? I received the first present from my brother, denim overalls. I was seven years old,” says Zemfira via email. “Even when I moved and started giving concerts, my first idea was to pay off the producer. Everybody was laughing at me because I was always wearing the same jacket.” Looks like that’s not going to be a problem again anytime soon.